Little Big Town headlines 2014 Army Summer Concert

2014-07-04T17:15:56Z2014-07-04T17:15:56Z

FORT SILL, Okla._It’s not too late to get your tickets for the 2014 Army Concert Tour, featuring award winning country music stars Little Big Town with special guests Tyler Bryant and the Shakedown and The O’s. The concert is the finale to the Fort Sill Independence Day celebration Saturday, July 5 on the Polo Field. Gates open at 6 p.m. and the show starts at 6:45 p.m.

Concert tickets

The concert is open to the public and advance tickets to the show, presented by Army Entertainment and Fort Sill Family and MWR, are available until 3 p.m. on the day of show.

Tickets can be purchased at area EZ-GO stores and both Adventure Travel locations in the Welcome Center on Fort Sill and downtown in the Mall and at the Lawton and Duncan Crutcher’s Western Wear locations. Tickets can also be purchased online at http://www.sillmwr.com until Friday at midnight or by calling 1-800-999-2987. Advanced ticket price is $30 and tickets will cost $35 at the gate. Children 6 and under are free.

Tickets can be purchased on the day of the concert at all participating EZ-GO locations and at the gate up to show time. They can also be purchased online until noon Saturday.

Getting to the concert

For all general admission ticket holders, parking will be on Conklin Field, located south of the Polo Field. Drivers should come on post through Gate 2, off Rogers Lane, to access general admission parking. Gate 2 will open at 1:00 p.m. on July 5. Conklin Field can hold around 4,000 vehicles for parking but attendees should plan on wearing comfortable shoes because there is a little bit of a walk from the parking area to the concert venue.

According to Lt. Billy Allen, Fort Sill Police Department, those parking on Conklin Field will have to walk from the field, through a low-water crossing onto the field. Allen said Key Gate, off of I-44 will close at noon on July 5. “There will be no entry or exit from the east or west Key Gate after noon. For premium VIP parking, which will be at the Museum across Sheridan Road from the Polo Field, and handicapped parking, which will be next to the Polo Club, drivers can enter post from Scott Gate (Fort Sill Boulevard), Apache Gate or Bentley Gate on Sheridan Road. All traffic exiting the concert will go through Gate 2 or Scott Gate,” he said. “We will have a parking detail in the parking areas to direct traffic to the parking areas.”

Allen said all bags, backpacks, folding chairs and like items will be checked by MP’s at event entry points.

There will be two holding areas at both the north and south gate entry points with a live radio remote at the south holding area, and food and beverage. Concert-goers can start entering post and parking for the show after 3 p.m. when the holding areas open. “We want to ensure that all attendees have time to get in the venue in a timely manner so we’ll open the holding areas at 3 p.m. to get them in, banded and through the gate,” said Flanagan.

Some of the things attendees should plan on bringing include folding chairs or a blanket to sit on and sun screen. No camera and/or recording equipment, pets, glass or weapons, including small knives and leatherman tools, will be allowed in the venue.

Coolers and similar containers are not allowed but refreshments will be available at a variety of concessions. Public consumption of alcoholic beverages is restricted to the concert area only. Beer will be served only to patrons displaying an alcohol wristband. Wristbands are available at no charge at the concert entry gates.

Single Soldier Shuttle

For those single Soldiers who live in on-post barracks, the Directorate of Logistics will provide a shuttle service from three areas on post to the venue and back to barracks after the show. The shuttles will run from 5 p.m. to midnight to drop off and pick up single Soldiers at the corner of Gruber and Sheridan Roads near the Polo Field. There will be several buses running throughout the event with pickup and drop-off points at Buildings 900, 1602/1603; and Building 3426 in the 3400 area.

Little Big Town

The country vocal quartet Little Big Town began with Kimberly Roads and Karen Fairchild, two Georgia natives who began singing together in college. Arkansas-born and Alabama-raised Jimi Westbrook, a friend of Fairchild’s husband, joined them to make a trio, and the group was completed by the addition of Arkansan Phil Sweet in 1998. From the outset, Little Big Town devoted their sound to harmony and multiple lead vocals, a combination that made the band a hard sell at first.

A Place to Land in 2007 netted three singles and the band's profile continued to grow due to touring and supporting acts from Sugarland to Carrie Underwood. In March of 2010 the group released a new single titled "Little White Church" as the lead-off single to their fourth studio album with their new label, Capitol Nashville, The Reason Why. "Little White Church," peaked at number 6 on the country charts. The album produced two additional singles in "Kiss Goodbye," and the title track.

The band returned in 2012 with the single "Pontoon," which wound up topping Billboard's country charts. Little Big Town's fifth full-length album, Tornado, followed in September 2012. "Pontoon," was Little Big Town’s first single to receive a Platinum certification. "Tornado," was released as the album's second single in October. The song debuted at number 47 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart and reached number 2 on the Country Airplay chart in 2013. At the 55th Grammy Awards, "Pontoon" won the Grammy Award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance. The album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America in December of 2012. Little Big Town has racked up multiple Grammy, CMA and ACM nominations and crafted Top 10 country hits "Boondocks," "Bring It On Home," "Little White Chapel" and "Pontoon."

Tyler Bryant and the Shakedown

Tyler Bryant was born to play music. The 21-year-old guitar prodigy has been playing since he was six and was bred on the roughneck blues of Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Bryant’s impressive resume reads as if he’s been in the business for decades. Tyler was awarded the Robert Johnson Foundation’s New Generation Award at 16, which pointed him out as one of the most promising new guitarists on the scene. He was featured in the award-winning documentary Rock Prophecies (one of the most viewed documentaries on iTunes & Netflix), along with Santana and Slash, and was chosen at age 15 by Eric Clapton to play his Crossroads Festival.

The Shakedown is comprised of an incredible array of musicians including Caleb Crosby on drums, Noah Denney on bass guitar and Graham Whitford, the son of Aerosmith’s Brad Whitford, on guitar. Together, Tyler Bryant and the Shakedown, tore up the South by Southwest Interactive Festival stage this past year and has built its rapport over several years, thanks in large part to a continuous string of live performances -- albeit wide-ranging in nature -- from opening stadiums for Aerosmith, Eric Clapton and B.B. King, to playing their own club gigs around the US and in Canada.

The O’s

Since forming in 2008, Taylor Young & John Pedigo, aka The O’s, have done just about everything an up-and-coming act can do. They’ve toured throughout the United States, they took off for Europe, played every festival that would have them and had their music pop up on various TV shows. Odds are that if you saw any large indie-Americana act in the last few years, you saw The O’s stealing the show as openers.

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